As i sit here having another moment of total boredom but inspiration i am saddened by reality. For a long long time i have been a part of the bit-tech community and have seen some of the greatest mods ever and also seen the uprising of some of the greatest new modders in the world. Just a few minutes ago i read the thread posted by DAE_JA_VOO (a guy who also lives in south africa like me) and it really upset me. hes worked so hard at his mod (which is an absolute killer mod) and i have wanted to do my own mega mod. i have all the inspiration and a damn few hundred ideas of mods i know will be great if only i had a way of doing them. the problem here lies in the lack of tools and funding i have for these projects. i used 2 own a Fragram multi-tool (a fake dremel pretty much) but it never did quite cut it (scuse the pun...) most great mods come from people who are sponsored to make their mods. with the exception to those few who start off their modding careers with nothing and work up (i spose this is how everyone does it). but that aside, modding here in SA is damn expensive. just the tools alone can cost you an arm and a leg (and some times a little bit more). this thread isnt so much a place for me to rant and rave without reply. i just got really bored and was thinkin and thought i should start a discussion of sort. a place for all the people who know what im talking about when i say modding isnt easy, not only due to the difficulty of skills and such, but due to the lack of funding or tools or neccessities. thanx for reading my sad and mindless banter and ramblings on about a sad reality i live in ahahah. maybe some day along the line ill gain the capital and have my own chance to wow the world.
Prices suck. But look at it this way, everything costs double in the UK what it does in the US, but I don't complain. Much. if it's really too expensive, look into importing from another country. It can be worth it if you can get a good deal.
I'm almost in the same situation as you are. Try to do the best you can with what you already have, or what you can get. You might spend some more time, or a lil more money, but I'm sure that you can mod almost anything you can imagine. I've waited several years to get my Dremel, and I didn't buy it here, but in Argentina. Before I got my Dremel, I used to make holes and cut anything just grabbing a blade wrapped with some old rags with my hand. It takes a lot more time and effort, but you can do the job. So cheer up, plan your mod knowing that it's going to take a little longer to do it.
Improvise. Creativity is the ability make do with constraints. An architect-friend of mine once said he likes to draw very small houses because in large houses you can do anything. It makes all the decisions harder. The tighter the constraits, the more creative the results usually turn out. If you are tight on tools and modding supplies, try to think of household items and tools that you have on hand. Concentrate on ways to make them go with computers.
Here's a mod done for less than $40. Hypno-Toad This person just found some scrap material that looked good and went with it. As I say in their log, some of the best mods are done on the cheap.
Hey, that's me! Hypno-Toad would have cost less, but I used stainless steel screws.(and I paid $5 to get 16 extralong rivets.) Improvization is the key to modding. Sure, some cases are really slick, but things like the cardboard box case become LEGEND. Even non-modders have seen the cardboard box mod. A good example of what I'm talking about would be Houston's Beer Can House. It's literally a house covered with aluminum beer cans. It was recently made a state landmark and is even being restored! Another good local example would be the annual art car parade here... Check out your local junk yard, (or even illegal dump site.) You would be amazed what people throw away. I found my current fillports on the side of a road. I found a miter saw the same way, -it just needed rewiring. My current hammer was found in a koi pond. The handle had rotted away, so I replaced it with part of a broken ax handle. On occasion I still use concrete to grind stuff. -I'm starting to ramble here... I guess what I'm saying is you CAN work with what you have, it just may take a little longer.
I'm gonna have to disagree with you there in totality. Don't get me wrong, the sponsored guys like tribal (and myself for that matter) certainly do cough up some decent work (i'm talking about tribal's work now ), but how did we get sponsored? Companies will only sponsor us if they can see that our work is "worthy" and good enough for them. No company will sponsor a modder if they feel the modder doesn't do good mods. That means that we need to build a good mod WITHOUT sponsors, and frikken pay for everything ourselves. Before i was sponsored, i paid for everything out of my pocket. Project Epiphany cost me an arm and a leg. I didn't have one single sponsor to help me out with that project. We all have to start somewhere Gunner. It's tough dude, i know, i was there too. It sucked. You need to know that you don't need a pile of cash to do a good mod. It's all about creativity. Now that i'm sponsored by so many companies, things are much easier as i don't pay for much anymore, and for that i am truly grateful. I can't thank my sponsors enough for hooking me up the way they have. Also remember that modding is ultimately for YOU. You mod your case for YOURSELF. It doesn't frikken matter what other people think. If they dont like it, tough luck. As long as you like it, that's all that matters. I don't mod for anyone but myself. I can't even remember how many people told me that Epiphany looked crap, i ignored them because it's MY mod, and i think it's bloody gorgeous, and that's what matters. I dont care if every modder on the face of the planet thinks my machine is ugly. If i like it, that's what counts. No get off your butt and go mod BTW, let me know if i can help you out. I have loads of plexi lying around here, maybe some other stuff if you need
the tools you need to build a decent mod: dril jig saw dremel If you can muster up the $$ for that, you can start to mod yoru projects. For the crazy ones, you need hundreds of thousands of dollars for cnc milling/lathes and laser/waterjet cutters....
DAE_JA_VOO!!! i cant begin n2 thank u enough, u really did pull the proverbial thumb out of my.....i realise now i was wrong and it is a bit frustrating at first but i know now that i can do it and WILL do it...i hope 2 wow u the same way that ur Epiphany wowed me... thanx 4 the offer 4 help and if there is anything i can think of then i hope u dont take offense if i ask ur help. thanx again
you should try coming to the UK a can of spray paint is £6.50 prices here are mega inflated for everything hence when i start my next mod im going to have a very strict budget for it work out the prices before hand and see if its what how i want to approach things. with a bit of planning you can decide o whether of not things are feasible or not.
haha thats insane...thats so expensive. spray paint here is like between R25 and R50...wich too is expensive. and stuff like parts for pcs i dont even wanna get into. a dremel original is an excess of a grand here.
Stuff in the UK is more expensive than in the US... and stuff in SA is more expensive than in the UK, so we have it worst Plexi is cheap here though, so we score there.
is plexi really cheap here? i actually have no idea where to buy it and no idea how much it costs...any help on the matter?
Dude plexi is dirt cheap here. Apparently in the US, you pay FAR more for plexi than here. You can get plexi at Maizey Plastics.
maizey plastics? hmmm that sounds very familiar... now thats where i remember u from! u once recommended them to me for plastic... do u have a website or contact number for me? and also wats the pricings? coz of i can remember clearly enuf they do have a site but without any prices.
Just to agree with the posts above. I've been featured twice in CPU magazine, both with cases built from scratch in my rental apartment kitchen, and our porch. With a jigsaw, a dremel, and a drill. I've actually made profit from the prize money alone, even including the computer components. And with no sponsors. In continuing my economy scratch build, my current build is comprised mostly of medium density fiberboard. 90% of my case cost me US$12. The paint to paint it cost more than the building materials. I did a rough break down of its cost: $12 - Stock mdf $25 - Hard drive rack and psu plate $40 - stock plastic $30 - hardware and aluminum stock $20 - paint $127 - total I have upgraded my tools to include a router, a drill press, and a scrollsaw. Now to have the latest and greatest components, quad core, 8800gtx sli, well then I might go looking for sponsors because I certainly don't need that kind of power in a system. But I taylor my modding towards building functional cases, regardless of the components inside. Imagination and simplicity can still build very very cool projects. CPU magazine feature 1. CPU magazine feature 2. Current $127 project.
